Pan Pacific Petroleum, together with other members of the Tui joint venture (JV), operated by Australian Worldwide Exploration Ltd, has committed to sufficient rig days on the Kan Tan IV drilling sequence to drill at least two exploration wells which are programmed for early fourth quarter on the current rig schedule.
There are five prospects adjacent to the Tui field within the Tui permit which are all potential drilling targets, but final selection of wells for drilling is still to be agreed by the JV. Seabed site surveys over all possible drilling locations were carried out in April 2009. Successful discoveries would likely be developed by low cost tie-back to the existing Tui facilities.
In the Tui Area Oil Project (PMP 38158) in the Taranaki basin (Pan Pacific Petroleum interest 10%), production from the Tui Area oil fields totaled 2.0 million barrels (Pan Pacific Petroleum 0.20 million barrels) for the March 2009 quarter, averaging 22,616 barrels a day. The production rate continues to exceed both long and short term forecast’s. Cumulative field production to the end of March 2009 was 21.8 million barrels (Pan Pacific Petroleum share 2.18 million barrels).
PEP 51321 lies south of PEP 38483, which is held by the same joint venture partners. The permit has a five year term. Initially the joint venture intends to reprocess historic seismic data and in year 2 the joint venture has committed to acquiring, processing and interpreting 200km of new 2D seismic. A drilling decision is to be taken at the end of year two.
Pan Pacific Petroleum also remains committed to its stated growth strategy and has actively focused on new joint venture oil opportunities in the South East Asia, and Australia-New Zealand region during the period. The current credit constraints are forcing many companies to consider divesting attractive projects which would otherwise have remained tightly held. Pan Pacific Petroleum is tapping into this deal flow, and is busy with several attractive opportunities.
